HAS SIIAMRA— HARRIS 481 



THE SUCCESSIVE OCCUPATIONS 



So far, only a small part of the surface of the tell has been excavated, 

 but in that section the digging has gone all the way down to virgin soil. 

 We may, therefore, try to collect the general facts about each stratum, 

 going down from the topmost (historically most recent) level: 



Stratum I-A — Middle oj fourteenth-thirteenth century B. G. — The 

 finds, both at Ras Shamra and at Minet el-Beida, are overwhelm- 

 ingly Mycenaean. There are vaulted tombs much like those at 

 Mycenae, usually with stone stairways and small windows. There 

 are classical Mycenaean painted urns of many kinds, small perfume 

 vases, many of them intact, largo terra-cotta jars for wine and oil, 

 tall Mycenaean goblets in the form of feminine heads. Some are 

 quite like similar objects found at Enkomi (ancient Salamis) on the 

 tip of Cyprus opposite Ras Shamra, having even the same potter's 

 marks. Much of this must, therefore, have been imported, but there 

 are signs of such pottery having been made locally, too. There are 

 also delicate objects of porcelain and glass, ivory boxes for boudoir 

 paints, Egyptian alabaster vases. Tools and weapons — daggers, 

 ax heads, long swords — are of bronze; jewelry is of bronze and various 

 semiprecious stones, with necklaces of Egyptian pearls, gold pendants 

 of Astarte in Phoenician style, and some rare iron jewelry fore- 

 shadowing the approach of the iron age. Figurines of goddesses and 

 gods, and bones of sacrificed sheep give a hint of the religion, and some 

 small tablets in the cuneiform alphabet have been found at the tell, 

 with one or two at Minet el-Bcida. 



Stratum I-B — Fifteenth-middle of fourteenth century B. C. — The 

 port settlement at Minet el-Beida seems to have been founded during 

 this period. Both at the port and at the tell there arc Cyprian 

 objects, but not Mycenaean, and Rhodian pottery such as is also 

 found in Cyprus, the Orontes valley in Syria, and Egypt. From the 

 end of tliis period come a gold plate and gold bowl of fine workman- 

 ship, representing a hunt and various symbolic figures. The pottery 

 is largely local, of Canaanite types. Here, too, are the foundations 

 of two reconstructed temples, one of Dagan, with two alphabetic 

 inscriptions dedicated to him, and the other of Baal, with an Egyptian 

 stele calling him Baal of Sapun. It is near this temple that the great 

 store of tablets was found, containing long mythological poems, 

 syllabaries for teaching cuneiform writing, and texts of cult instruc- 

 tions; this must have been the priestly scribal school. Other small 

 tablets have been found elsewhere, and also a group of ax heads 

 inscribed in the cuneiform alphabet "ax of the chief priest." 



Stratum II — Twenty-first-sixteenth century B. C. — Here are the first 

 foundations of the temples of Dagan and Baal, and from the end of 

 this period comes an Akkadian letter written by the local Idng Niqmed, 



